1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a print management apparatus and a print management method. More specifically the present invention pertains to a print management apparatus that manages printing of multiple image data as well as to a print management method that manages an order of printing multiple image data with one or multiple printers.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The proposed print management apparatus prints image data in an order of acceptance of printing instructions. This apparatus is constructed, for example, as a printer server connecting with a computer network and prints image data in a sequence of acceptance of printing instructions from a plurality of computers via the network. In this system, image data to be printed and their printing conditions are stored in an external storage device like a memory or an HDD attached to the apparatus and outputs the image data and the printing conditions to a printer for printing.
In the prior art apparatus that prints the image data in the order of acceptance of printing instructions, frequent replacement of ink and paper is required when the accepted printing instructions specify different paper species, different paper sizes, and different ink species as printing conditions. This undesirably lowers the printing efficiency and requires rather troublesome, complicated operations for printing.